Remember you can also compress most isos which drops space and included in that is the ability to wipe updates from games and otherwise rip and relink things (languages, music, videos....) to make it smaller.

Advanscene also hosts .dat files to be used with programs like Offlinelist. These dats include a lot of info about all the releases including size (untouched .iso's). I use it to verify my iso's, then i make a backup of the full iso before i convert it to .cso, rip or modify anything. Must haves for any collector.

I say get an 8 GB or wait till the 16 GB drops in price. Grand Theft Auto Vice City takes 1.58 GB (Iso mode obviously) and Resistance Retribution takes 1.38 GB in CSO mode. These are the highest I've seen but they're over 1 GB each so I wouldn't get anything lower than an 8 GB.

However, if you convert them into CSO's, they're significantly smaller. For example, if you did Grand Theft Auto, it would be about 9.80 GB but the thing is, GTA doesn't work well in CSO mode. Other games are fine. Homebrew usually doesn't surpass 50 MB, give or take unless it's a big homebrew game or something of that sort.

I say get an 8 GB or wait till the 16 GB drops in price. Grand Theft Auto Vice City takes 1.58 GB (Iso mode obviously) and Resistance Retribution takes 1.38 GB in CSO mode. These are the highest I've seen but they're over 1 GB each so I wouldn't get anything lower than an 8 GB.

However, if you convert them into CSO's, they're significantly smaller. For example, if you did Grand Theft Auto, it would be about 9.80 GB but the thing is, GTA doesn't work well in CSO mode. Other games are fine. Homebrew usually doesn't surpass 50 MB, give or take unless it's a big homebrew game or something of that sort.

nah you don't need that much, magicgate make loading the game faster although not significantly, just get a normal memory stick by your favourite maker just get the 8 gig or so and when the time comes and you need bigger capacity, the price on 16 gig has probably drop

From what I hear, some games load slower off them and I don't believe MagicGate is supported...is that a big deal?

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I haven't had any issues, not even in God of War or GTA: LCS. Some people claim MagicGate is a big deal, but it's really just to tell fake MS Pro Duos apart from real ones. MicroSD cards are cheaper than MS Pro Duos, too.

I'd completely agree with the above (although i've not tried GoW or the GTA games) Magic Gate tech really doesn't matter in the case of a GENUINE set up. Fake sticks without Magic Gate are terrible because they're cheap knock-offs, NOT because they don't have the MG standard. The best way to judge your stick performance, once you're happy it's not a fake that may corrupt on you or die, is with the PSXReality Speed Tester (or for a less detailed output Blackspeed).

A genuine Photofast CR-5400 and two fast MicroSD's (i.e preferably not Class 2 if you have large sticks) are liable to be a cheap memory solution and fine for gaming.

I say get an 8 GB or wait till the 16 GB drops in price. Grand Theft Auto Vice City takes 1.58 GB (Iso mode obviously) and Resistance Retribution takes 1.38 GB in CSO mode. These are the highest I've seen but they're over 1 GB each so I wouldn't get anything lower than an 8 GB.

However, if you convert them into CSO's, they're significantly smaller. For example, if you did Grand Theft Auto, it would be about 9.80 GB but the thing is, GTA doesn't work well in CSO mode. Other games are fine. Homebrew usually doesn't surpass 50 MB, give or take unless it's a big homebrew game or something of that sort.

I'd completely agree with the above (although i've not tried GoW or the GTA games) Magic Gate tech really doesn't matter in the case of a GENUINE set up. Fake sticks without Magic Gate are terrible because they're cheap knock-offs, NOT because they don't have the MG standard. The best way to judge your stick performance, once you're happy it's not a fake that may corrupt on you or die, is with the PSXReality Speed Tester (or for a less detailed output Blackspeed).

A genuine Photofast CR-5400 and two fast MicroSD's (i.e preferably not Class 2 if you have large sticks) are liable to be a cheap memory solution and fine for gaming.

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But how would the speed with the photofast and 2 microsd cards (while using it in a PSP, not on a PC) compare to using say, this or this one?

That's only half the story....which two MicroSD's? Although yes to the first stick though....the Sandisk is probably unlikely, although compare the prices you'll pay for the Photofast set against that one!

I'd completely agree with the above (although i've not tried GoW or the GTA games) Magic Gate tech really doesn't matter in the case of a GENUINE set up. Fake sticks without Magic Gate are terrible because they're cheap knock-offs, NOT because they don't have the MG standard. The best way to judge your stick performance, once you're happy it's not a fake that may corrupt on you or die, is with the PSXReality Speed Tester (or for a less detailed output Blackspeed).

A genuine Photofast CR-5400 and two fast MicroSD's (i.e preferably not Class 2 if you have large sticks) are liable to be a cheap memory solution and fine for gaming.

Click to expand...

But how would the speed with the photofast and 2 microsd cards (while using it in a PSP, not on a PC) compare to using say, this or this one?

Click to expand...

I have a genuine Photofast CR-5400 and 2 genuine Kingston 8Gb Micro SDHC cards (Class 4) and they work perfectly fine and extremely fast in my PSP, even copying iso's over to the psp from my laptop via USB is pretty fast no more than a few minutes or less

But since plugins are often problematic given a poor MS read speed, it can be a very important reason as to why some things refuse to work. Also go for the fastest you can get....comparing UMD to MS access just for playing a game isn't a fair analysis as CFW does so much more.